Thursday, January 26, 2012

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Proportionally, this boy would be five–foot–five at this scale, but his knees bend much better than my androids', and he has a face, even a nice face... The dog on the other hand is nearly a perfect match scale–wise to our dog, Sheena, who also has a very nice face.
Useful details in this shot include the companionway boards and the rudder.

There is a little bit of a contrast in quality between these photos made with my Nikon D300 on a tripod and others in this blog made with my cell phone. Imagine that.

The base of the mast shows my use of screw eyes to take the place of blocks. Notice this mast is hinged! The red halyard cleated off is a spare one I plan to include on my full scale boat.

Here is how I represented cam cleats. The green line is the peak halyard; the cyan line is the jib sheet. Now that I look at this configuration, I may put both cleats on the cabin roof—one less trip hazard. Also, you can see I tried out my paint scheme on only the port side of the model. I still have some notes written on the starboard side that I want to keep track of.

The gaff jaws at work. Yes, the peak halyard got caught where it doesn't belong.

My electronics cabinet. Behind the grab rail is where I cleated off the green throat halyard and blue jib halyard, tucking the ends in the small cubby.

Here is my cabin corner shelf. Compare this and my electronics cabinet photos to the drawing I posted earlier on this blog.

The android sailors show off my tiller ⁄ rudder design. (The rudder box goes up too high. I want the tiller to be pretty much horizontal—hinged, maybe—and to clear the taff rail by an inch or so.) The seat hatch is in place on the lazarette. And on the near cabin roof the halyard cleats and fairleads are more visible.

I am almost ready to attach the cabin roof. My android sailor is finding the shelf to be crowding his space some. Note the added cabinet above his knees. This is where I plan for my electronics to live. The yellow wires extending through the cabin wall and upwards would go to a masthead light and a VHF antenna—if I go with a built–in radio. Notice how the wall paper inside the cabin matches my external color scheme...

Lots of details to notice, starting in the upper left hand portion of the frame: An additional shelf in the aft (rear) starboard corner of the cabin; then to the right on the other side of the main bulkhead you see a cute little cubby for storing lines out of the way; my cockpit seat configuration; the lazarette sans hatch seat cover; and back to the lower left hand part, a top view of the electronics cabinet.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

This photo proves it! Two six-foot-six guys can lay down in the cabin of this boat. I'm not so sure about actually sleeping, however...

I already decided to leave the space under the cockpit seats open to accomodate long-legged people. I still had to figure out how far to extend the seat box from the cabin. So I wedged my sailors into place and made some marks on the floor of the cockpit. The rear end of the box will extend approximately eight inches back from the bottom edge of the cabin bulkhead. Voila'

Here is how they fit next to the transom (at the back) and in the companionway hatch.

A couple of birthday gifts made it possible for me to order a set of plans with DVDs. The set arrived December 27, 2011. My current circumstances are such that I dare not start purchasing lumber, but I have begun building a sailboat anyway—a working model scaled 3/4ths of an inch to 1 foot. I bought some poster board that was close to the right thickness. (It would be about 5/8ths ply. I am not matching the three thicknesses called for in the plans.)
I also am NOT making a scale replica model of a Weekender sailboat to place on the mantle and collect dust. This model gives me experience following the plans, and lets me work out practicality and dimensions for my modifications. In addition I bought two artist manikins which are a scale size of six foot six and 250 pounds—about my son's size. So if they fit, he and I will, too.

Here is a stack of 4x8 sheets, dimensional lumber strips, and the finished keel. The smallest size I'm cutting is "1x2" or inch-and-a-half-wide strips at this scale (for the rub rails specifically). The plans call for stringers that are smaller, but I think hot glue spreading out from the joints will do nicely!

The bottom is now attached to the keel. Too bad the full size job doesn't come together this quickly...

It is looking like a sailboat! This is a very useful stage in the build process. I've worked out a number of specifics by placing my sailors in various positions and noting what I see. I have then modified my copy of the plans accordingly.

I decided to build Kingsfold, but had not purchased plans yet. I began researching in earnest—builder forums, photos, videos, etc. I put my Art Minor to use as well. As I got ideas I wrote them down and sketched them; I tried them out on paper—23 pages of 12x9 inch heavyweight sketch paper so far.

I discovered a couple of things quickly. One is that I had several priorities: plenty of leg room in the cockpit, at least one tall person being able to lay down in the cabin, and several others which have been dropped from my list with time and research. (More about my research later)

I want room for three adult bodies to be aboard in comfort for long sails. This priority revealed the second thing I discovered. I am good at coming up with designs for things, but they involve a lot more work than I want to spend in building (I want to be sailing, rather.). So time after time I have had to go back to sticking with the original plans—except where certain priorities of mine outweigh the original design. But even then I have still gone back to find ways to simplify the execution of my ideas.

This is pretty much my favorite drawing so far. It shows some cabin modifications to make cruising more enjoyable for me. The detail photos of the model later on show how the idea built out.